Dillon XO Hors d'âge Magnum "Grenadier" is a very old rum from Martinique. Made from pure cane juice, it is an agricultural rum that benefits from the Martinique Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. This magnum was once known as "Grenadier", because the label featured a soldier. This soldier was part of the regiment led from Brest by Count Arthur Dillon, to fight in the American War of Independence. It was following this war that Arthur Dillon settled in Martinique.
This rum is a blend of casks aged a minimum of 10 years in oak. It comes in a hand-waxed magnum, in a wooden box.
Nico's tasting notes
On the nose, there's a thick, greedy woodiness, with infinitely stewed tannins. Baked apples, apricot marmalade and a generous sprinkling of spices, also melted to perfection.
With aeration, the oak becomes a little deeper. As we gain access to the flesh of the barrel, greener notes emerge. These are deep, resin-tinged tannins, reminiscent in their freshness of just-pressed sugarcane.
The palate is astonishingly greedy, going off in all directions but always landing on its feet. It attacks with a concentrate of mango and passion fruit juice, with vegetal accents of sugar cane, then passes through a note of melted pepper, before setting off again with a yellow fruit syrup.
On the finish, all that fruit juice takes on a tangy, harlequin candy air, even evolving into menthol.
"What a fine example of savoir-faire for this rum from Martinique! Relentlessly delicious, yet disarmingly simple...".
